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Best Practices for Web Optimization

Posted by Jamison on 22 08 2016.

Web optimization is one of the most critical components of web development and maintenance. However, as important as it may be, a lot of webmasters still fail to prioritize it. When properly done though, web optimization can save webmasters and owners a lot of money, increase traffic, and boost bottom line.

To get you started on proper web optimization, here are some of the best practices you should incorporate.

Get a decent web hosting provider.

Although web hosting provider does not have a direct relationship with web optimization, you should still keep in mind that it serves as your website’s foundation. It functions as the accessibility (cPanel, SSH, FTP), security, customer server stability, and customer and technical support of your website. It will not make any sense to keep optimizing your website if your host itself is not a good one.

Get separate hosts for your assets.

The term “assets” here pertain to web-related components including static scripts and images that do not have direct ties with your server-side processes. All your web graphics, Javascripts, images, and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) among many others comprise these assets. Although it is not mandatory, you will definitely see some great results when you host them separately. One great benefit is improved server stability, especially during traffic spikes.

Always try to compress all files as much as possible.

Whenever someone makes a requests for an HTTP, the web content travels from the server side to the client side and vice versa. Uncompressed files take a lot longer, while those decompressed need a lot less time to transfer. So compress as many files as possible so that you can greatly reduce the required time to process every request. One of the best tools for compressing web files is GZip.

Reduce the amount of redirects.

A lot of webmasters and website owners use URL redirects, both in the form of META and Javascript. There are many benefits to doing so. For instance, it automatically sends web users who access old domains (websites) to the correct ones. Sometimes, these webmasters and owners also utilize redirects to guide users and let them know that they have a new website.

The thing is, whenever you create a redirect, it needs to make an extra request for HTTP and RTT (round-trip-time). So the greater the number of redirects you have, the slower the end-user will reach the destination point. You can avoid this by minimizing the amount of redirects you use. Choose only a few of the most relevant (and most popular) to boost not only website performance, but also to prevent your visitors feeling frustrated and annoyed.

Reduce DNS Lookups

According to Yahoo! Developer Network Blog, it takes about 20-120 milliseconds for DNS (Domain Name System) to resolve IP address for a given hostname or domain name and the browser cannot do anything until the process is properly completed.

Author Steve Souders suggested that splitting these components across at least two but no more than four hostnames reduces DNS lookups and allow high degree parallel downloads. Read more on the article.